Today is a good day, because Jeffrey Epstein is being held in a highly secure Manhattan jail. But today there's also news that the registered sex offender and financier is appealing the judge's decision that denied him bail.
Epstein filed papers on Tuesday that state he intends to appeal the judge's decision to keep him locked up until the trial.
"Epstein's alleged excessive attraction to sexual conduct with or in the presence of minor girls – which is said to include his soliciting and receiving massages from young girls and young women perhaps as many as four times a day – appears likely to be uncontrollable," U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan said in his written decision last week.
Jeffrey Epstein is now challenging that ruling, which declares him a flight risk with "uncontrollable" desires.
From the Daily Beast's Tracy Connor:
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman last week shot down Epstein's request to be put on house arrest, writing that he was a clear flight risk who was likely to prey on young women if he was released.
"Mr. Epstein's alleged excessive attraction to sexual conduct with or in the presence of minor girls—which is said to include his soliciting and receiving massages from young girls and young women perhaps as many as four times a day—appears likely to be uncontrollable," Berman wrote.
"It seems fair to say that Mr. Epstein's future behavior will be consistent with past behavior, including the trove of 'lewd photographs of young-looking women or girls,' which were recently uncovered during the July 6-7, 2019, search of Mr. Epstein's East 71st Street mansion," the judge added.
From Reuters' writeup of the court notice that became publicly available today:
According to a court notice made public on Tuesday, Epstein will ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the judge's July 18 rejection of his request to remain under house arrest in his $77 million mansion on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Epstein has pleaded not guilty and the appeal was expected. His lawyer Reid Weingarten did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan declined to comment.
The charges, concerning alleged misconduct from at least 2002 to 2005, were announced more than a decade after Epstein pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges in Florida.
The case is U.S. v. Epstein, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 19-cr-00490.
